A Rio To Remember

By the 6th of Feb we were on our way to Rio – and you could already see the place was packed for Carnival! Rio de Janeiro received its name from the Portuguese who discovered the “Rio” or “river” (it was actually just a narrow part of the sea) running through the area in the month of January… hence Rio is born for a new group of conquerors.

Colin and I got into our hotel that was pre-booked for the last 10 months, Hotel Pompeu. We weren’t sure what to expect, especially since the reviews of the place on TripAdvisor called it a “Motel” which in Brazil is synonymous with one of Brazil’s legal ‘sex-hotels,’ where both young lovers still living with family come to get away – and where Brazilians come with ‘professionals.’ Thankfully, although the area around Hotel Pompeu looked a bit dodgy, the place itself was quite nice. It was totally under construction while we were there – our room was one of the few that wasn’t – but we weren’t able to hear the construction noise. After reading an article about "Love Hotels" on Yahoo, I found out that many sex “motels” in Rio are currently being converted into tourist “hotels,” especially in the Centro area where the Olympic City will be. Hotel Pompeu is a prime candidate for conversion and investment, as a few minute walk all around the hotel we saw barricaded off areas indicating where the Olympic City will be.

Inside our room was pretty decent – much better than expected, actually! In fact, once we figured out how to work the AC and spied the private 2-person wood sauna in the bathroom, we decided we had a good deal! But the sauna wasn’t the only indicator of Hotel Pompeu’s past as a “motel” – we explored further, finding that the bed’s headboard was bolted to the wall, there was mood lighting and an ancient looking surround sound music system, a giant mirror taking up the wall opposite the bed, and… well, a vinyl mattress! Clearly our room hadn’t been renovated yet, so this all might be gone come Olympics-time. I hope they keep the sauna though!

The benefit of Hotel Pompeu being under construction was for the majority of our stay, the restaurant was closed. This meant our free breakfast was allowed as room service! Welcomed treat. After our breakfast the next morning, Colin and I went to pick up our Carnival passes at the Atlántico Copacabana Hotel, taking the metro down to the infamous beach. Following the CarnivalBooker signs, we started to get really excited as we were handed our Sector 5 passes for Sunday and Monday evening, plus a schedule for the street parades. After getting the tickets, we walked along the 4km stretch of Copacabana beach until we came to Forte de Copacabana.

The Forte de Copacabana was built in 1908 by the Brazilian army to protect Rio de Janeiro. We explored the fort, with its cannons and halls, some rooms with information about the Brazilian protection of the coast. There were also life-sized figures which were positioned to re-enact important scenes in Brazilian history since the arrival of the Portuguese.   

Next we walked up to Ipanema beach. We learned later at the local history museum that the word “Ipanema” comes from the language of a large and diverse group of linguistic family members, an indigenous Brazilian group now known as “Tupi.” The phrase means “bad/stinky water” and originated due to the negative experiences brought upon them from Portuguese arrival to the land they occupied around the beach and its waters. We ended our exploration of the Fort by climbing up to the roof for an amazing view over the beaches and coast below. Definitely recommended!   

After walking around the roof we were starving, and got some ice-creams before trying out a place nearby the beach called Amazonia which served food from the Amazon – supposedly. Turns out it wasn’t that great, our crab (dry) and manioc (grainy, but that’s typical) was OK but the soup we somehow got (didn’t order a soup) had soap bubbles in the broth! Sending it back, we decided to wait for the Amazon and stick with less adventurous food while in Rio! 

We spent a while more walking around Colin and I grew tired and headed back to the room – for two days! Deciding to catch up on some sleep after the exhausting bus ride (and dashing right into Rio sightseeing the following day) the whole of Feb 8th was spent relaxing and planning the rest of our time in Brazil!

Our story begins again on the morning of February 9th, when we headed back to Copacabana to meet our guide for our booked “Favela Tour!” Which also happened to be the name of the company we booked with. It was a race to get there (we had long since realized few ATMs work in Brazil for foreign cards! Try Bradesco or Citibank!) but we made it and headed with our group up to the first favela, Rocinha, which began in the 1940’s.

Favelas are shantytowns, which formed in the late 1800’s as African slaves were freed and had no where to go or means to support themselves and earn a living. The name “Rocinha” actually means vegetable garden, as growing vegetables to eat and sell was how ex-slaves tried to support themselves. Most modern favelas are from the 1970’s, as the poorer populations continued to be pushed up into the steep hills, away from the wealthier beach areas below as more space is needed for commercial  and luxury development.

Rocinha is the largest favela in Rio, and at least 70,000 people live within its steep confines according to government census. According to our guide, it is more likely that at least 150,000 people live in Rocinha, making for quite a discrepancy. Colin and I walked with the group through the favela, wondering to ourselves just how correct our guide was in assuring us the favela community didn’t mind tours like ours coming through their neighborhood. We had to wonder though – while some bought a water or snack, it didn’t seem like much money was to be made off our group by the residents, and we didn’t wander very far into the favela as the higher up one goes, the more dangerous the venture becomes.       

This next favela is called Vila Canoas, and it was here that we actually got to walk down into the favela itself, getting a feel for what it would be like to actually live here. It seemed like dark, winding, subterranean alleyways and damp rooms for the most part – not that healthy, safe, or uplifting. It was quite claustrophobic! The favela had a local school which was funded to educate the “Para Ti” community through money gained from favela tours – so this must help the residents at least a bit. There was art to be purchased which funded the school here as well… 

After our favela experience, we had another tour planned – this one of Santa Teresa. We were supposed to meet our guide back towards Centro one stop from our hotel in an area called Cinelandia. Colin and I headed straight there and found ourselves in instant chaos as soon as we exited the metro station: a huge street party for Carnival! We moved away from the masses to have some lunch in an Italian place near the movie theater which served us huge portions of chicken.

Once we met our tour for 2pm, we struggled as a group to weave our way through the masses (the street was jam-packed with sweaty, mostly cross-dressing or costumed people shoulder to shoulder making it almost impossible to squeeze past in any direction!) and get to the staircase which marked the beginning of Santa Teresa. The Escadaria Selarón is a huge staircase of 250 steps, measuring 125 meters long. Superbly colorful with red and Brazilian flag colors of blue, yellow, and green, the stairs are covered in over 2000 tiles collected from over 60 countries around the world. This self-started project was created by a Chilean-born man named Jorge Selarón who worked on it until, this article indicates, he was murdered on January 2013.            

 

 

Because of the street party, we had to climb up the stairs rather than taking a taxi, which ended up being quite a workout! It was really great to be able to see what one of the ‘bloco’ parties was like while being guided around the neighborhood, felt a lot safer than going at it alone! It was quite a mess though, reminded me a lot of Nottinghill Carnival, so I was satisfied that attending one was enough before the Sambadrome festivities.     

We learned that the neighborhood of Santa Teresa is located on Santa Teresa hill and is now a haven for artists and a bohemian center, a luxurious place for the upper class to live. The infamous tram in the area is currently under renovation, as there were numerous deaths from its crashing a couple times in the past few years. So no tram for us!  

Originally this area was held by ex-slaves. Back when the Portuguese ruled, there were many wealthy families occupying the lower-lying areas. They were evacuated by the King when he, fleeing Napoleon, brought the center of his empire to Brazil along with 10,000 staff members – which made Rio the only colony to become the capital of a kingdom. The King had “PK” written on the doors of any buildings he wanted to claim (“Property of the King”) and the wealthy had to move to Santa Teresa.

Once disease hit areas of Brazil, more populated the area trying to escape the mosquito-born diseases which effected the lower water-filled areas. Finally, the artists moved into Santa Teresa, turning the area into the creative center it is today. We saw evidence of this creativity with some street artists, one of them – Getulio Damado – a friend of our tour guide. When we arrived at his modern art trolley, he had a gift waiting for her: a portrait of her in art/doll form! From trash to treasured.              

We climbed all over Santa Teresa, seeing old buildings, churches, lots of great views of the city. The party was still rocking when we finished the tour a couple hours later, but we were sweating from roaming around the hills of the neighborhood. We grabbed a taxi back to the hotel, ordered some room service and had a rest. Next: Carnival time!!  

Talk to you all again soon,

Francesca